Eligibility Requirements

Not adjudicated mentally incapacitated with respect to voting in Florida or any other state

Not convicted of a felony (and not had your civil rights restored)

ID Needed for Voter Registration

You must provide your current and valid Florida driver's license number, an ID number or the last 4 digits of your Social Security number to register. If you have none of these numbers, you must write "NONE" on the voter registration form.

If you register by mail and you are a first-time voter in the State and you have not been issued a Florida driver's license number, Florida I.D. number, or a Social Security number you are required to provide additional identification. To assure that you will not have problems when you go to vote, you should provide a copy of the required identification at the time you mail your voter registration form. If you are voting an absentee ballot, you must provide the proper identification prior to 7 p.m. Election Day or your absentee ballot will not count. The following forms of identification are acceptable if they contain your name and photograph:

United States passport

Debit of credit card

Military identification

Student identification

Retirement center identification

Neighborhood association identification

Public assistance Identification

Instead of the photo ID, you may provide a copy of a current and valid utility bill, bank statement, government paycheck, or other government document containing your name and current residence address. Do not send original identification documents to the supervisor of elections.

The following persons are not required to provide the identification required under the previous paragraph:

Persons 65 years of age or older

Persons with a temporary or permanent physical disability

Members of the uniformed services on active duty and their spouses and dependants, who, by reason of such active duty, are absent from the county on Election Day

Members of the Merchant Marine and their spouses and dependents, who, by reason of service in the Merchant Marine, are absent from the county on Election Day

ID Needed for Voting?

To vote at the polls, you must provide picture identification that also shows a signature OR picture identification and another form of ID with your signature.

Examples of accepted photo IDs with a signature are:

Florida driver's license

Florida identification card issued by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

If your photo ID does not have your signature, you will be asked to provide another ID that does have your signature.

If you do not bring a valid ID, you can still vote a provisional ballot. As long as you are eligible and voted in the proper precinct, your provisional ballot will count provided the signature on your provisional ballot matches the signature in your registration record.

Registration Deadline

You can apply to register to vote at any time. However, to vote in an election, you must be registered in the state by the book closing date, which is 29 days before each election. You may pre-register to vote if you are 17 years old or have received a valid Florida driver's license, whichever occurs earlier.

Note: To vote in a Florida election you must be registered for at least 29 days prior to the election date. If you prefer to vote during the time designated for early voting, you must be registered for 29 days by this time or you will not be able to vote at that time.

Verify Voter Registration

Absentee Ballot Process

Florida law allows all qualified voters to request an absentee ballot from the Supervisor of Elections. A member of the voter's immediate family or legal guardian may also request an absentee ballot for a voter, if directly instructed to do so by the voter. The request can cover all elections through the next two regularly scheduled general elections. A request for an absentee ballot to be mailed must be made no later than 5 p.m. on the 6th day before an election. Contact your Supervisor of Elections to request an absentee ballot.

Overseas and Military Voters

You are a Military or Overseas voter if you are in uniformed services, living overseas OR a spouse or dependant of a uniformed services voter. To get registered and vote, you can utilize Overseas Vote Foundation.

If you have filled out your ballot and want to use express delivery, you can use the Overseas Vote Foundation's Express Your Vote resource for discounted shipping rates and reliable tracking.

If you have additional questions about elections and voting overseas you can use our state specific elections official directory or contact the Overseas Vote Foundation.

Overseas and Military Voters

You are a Military or Overseas voter if you are in uniformed services, living overseas OR a spouse or dependant of a uniformed services voter. To get registered and vote, you can utilize Overseas Vote Foundation.

If you have filled out your ballot want to use express delivery, you can use the Overseas Vote Foundation's Express Your Vote resource for discounted shipping rates and reliable tracking.

If you have additional questions about elections and voting overseas you can use our state specific elections official directory or contact the Overseas Vote Foundation.

Early Voting

Florida state early voting, at a minimum, begins 10 days before an election and ends on the third day before an election. During this period, early voting is conducted no less than 8 hours but not more than 12 hours per day on each day during the period. Supervisors of Elections designate early voting sites 30 days before an election, contact your Supervisor of Elections for locations in your county.

Voters who want to vote early should remember to bring a photo and signature ID with them. Contact your Supervisor of Elections for dates, times and locations in your county.

Election Dates

The next election is Tuesday, January 27, 2015 (State House Districts 17 and 24 and State Senate District 6 Speical Election). The registration deadline is Monday, December 29, 2014.

Polling Place Hours

Time Off To Vote

Time off to vote is subject to the employer. Florida state law does not require employers to grant time off to vote for employees.

Polling Place Locator

You can find your polling place by utilizing your state resource. If you have further questions on your polling place location, please contact your county clerk.

Provisional Voting

You may cast a provisional ballot. For more information check your state's resource.

Voters must cast their provisional ballot in the correct polling place in order for it to be counted.

Voters receive a provisional ballot if:

their registration cannot be verified at the polls

an absentee ballot has been issued but the voter fails to bring it to the polls

voter fails to provide proper ID

the polling hours are extended (these provisional ballots are segregated from all other provisional ballots).

If registered and eligible to vote, and voters’ signature on the provisional ballot matches the signature of the voters’ registration form, the ballot is counted, if it's cast in the correct polling place. If not registered, vote is not counted. If a voter voted a provisional ballot for other reasons (for example, eligibility was challenged, they were in the wrong precinct when they voted, they did not appear on the precinct register, etc.), voters have the opportunity to bring in evidence to their respective supervisor of elections no later than 5 p.m., of the second day following the election. The local canvassing board will examine the provisional ballot certificate, and any and all other information and evidence, if anything is available. The board must count provisional ballots unless the board determines, based on preponderance of the evidence, that a voter was not entitled to vote.

Voting Machines

The voting systems used in Florida are optical scan and DRE.

Optical Scan: With this system, you will receive a card or sheet of paper, which you take over to a private table or booth. The card has the names of the various candidates and ballot measures printed on it. With a pen or pencil you fill in a little box or circle or the space between two arrows. When you are finished filling out all the cards, you may bring the cards over to a ballot box, where poll workers will show you how to put the cards in the box. Or in some places, you may feed the completed cards or papers into a computer device that checks your card or paper right there at the polling place to make sure you have voted the way you want to and counts the votes.

Direct Recording Electronic (DRE): This is the newest kind of system in use in the U.S. All the information about who and what you are voting for is on an electronic screen like a TV or computer screen.

There are many variations of DREs because lots of companies are inventing new ones, and many cities, counties and states are trying them out. Usually, after you have signed in, the poll workers will give you a card that you slide into a device to start your voting session.

Some of these devices will show all of the candidates and ballot choices on one big screen. Often, with these big screen devices you push a button next to the name of the candidate you want to vote for (or yes or no on a ballot measure). On other DREs, the screen is set up to show pages. On each screen or page, there will probably be one thing to vote on. For example, on one screen or page, you might vote for president. Then you might move to the next page to vote for senator. Often these small-screen devices have a pages. where you touch the screen next to the name of the person you want to vote for. Other devices have a key pad. Some have a keyboard, so you can write in the name of someone you want to vote for.

You let the system know you are finished voting by pushing a button, touching the screen or entering something on a keypad.

Candidate and Ballot Measure Information

Provisions for Voters with Disabilities

If you are unable to read or write or, because of a disability, needs assistance in voting, you may designate someone, other than an employer or an officer or agent of your union, to provide such assistance. Election officials may also provide assistance.